Mae leaned back and allowed Dean to take care of her, and he did it with gentleness and precision, making sure every inch saw the same loving attention she showed him. After he had shampooed and conditioned her hair and finally set the shower head aside and took her in his arms. Mae's entire body melted into his with a contented sigh. He kissed the top of her head tenderly and pressed a hand low on her abdomen, encouraging her to lean into him further. He could feel her tremble a little, and he knew it wasn't from the heat of the bath. "I'm crazy about you," he breathed softly into the curve of her shoulder.

Mae smiled, her eyes still shut, and she let herself enjoy the peaceful moment, the heat of the water, and the relief of being in his arms. "I bet you say that to all the girls."

"Just you."

To her surprise, she believed him. They stayed in the bath, holding each other, until the water began to cool. They got out of the tub and Dean grabbed a huge towel from the shelf next to the tub. He tucked it around Mae. "I'm not sure if I should thank you or apologize."

"For what?"

"For all this, taking care of us, letting us stay here."

"Oh. Well, no need, for either. You're welcome here. It's not like you didn't drop whatever you were doing to help me out." She took a towel down for him. Handing it to him, she paused and cupped his check. "You're gettin' a little scruffy, Sparky."

"You want me to shave?" Dean asked, wrapping the towel around his waist.

Mae shrugged. "I like it either way. You look good."

Dean chuckled and kissed her forehead. He then picked her up, encouraging her legs to wrap around his waist. Mae clung to him, her arms wrapped around him as he carried her into the bedroom. He placed her gently onto the bed before joining her. He covering her body with his and kissing her slowly, passionately. He undid her towel, exposing her pale, pink skin to the cool air. Her body was still warm and yielding to his touch. Feeling his breath on her skin, Mae pressed against him, her hands trailing up and down his torso. Dean's hands moved up and down her body in turn, mastering her with his touch. They kissed deeper and soon his kisses left burning trails of pleasure and need across her body. He whispered her name as he moved against her.

Afterwards, they laid entwined in bed, thoroughly spent as they finally stilled. Dean rolled onto his back, an arm still draped over Mae, and they looked up at the ceiling. Dean smiled and said, "We are exceptionally good at that."

Mae laughed breathlessly and kissed him on the chest. "Yeah, we really are." She said, snuggling further into his side. She angled her head up towards his, to look at his face and smiled. "God, you're beautiful."

Dean chuckled, the warmth of her compliment settling in his chest. He brushed a finger along her cheek softly. The setting sun cast her in warm yellow and orange light. She was gorgeous. "You don't look too bad yourself, Red."

He realized he wanted nothing more than to stay in this little oasis, far away from their reality. He knew that wasn't possible but in the quiet afterglow, he wanted to commit all of this to memory, to savor and hold close. He stroked her long, damp and slightly unruly hair. She sighed and snuggled even closer, her lanky body molded against his.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah." She said lazily.

He let his fingers stroke her arm lightly as he thought of the best way to say what he wanted to say. He thought long enough that Mae though he might have dozed off or forgotten what he was thinking about. "Is it-Listen, I don't think it's weird for us to be hookin' up or anything. But it feels weird that it's so intense."

"You're after less intense sex? I'm not sure I can do that but I'm willing to do less, if that's what you're after."

He reached across his body to smack her lightly on hip. "Not that, smart ass. You know what I'm talking about, right? Whenever I'm around you, I just can't help myself. With other girls, I can dial back when I need to. With you it's just...always there. Not always the sex part but just needing to be with you."

Mae rolled out of his embrace and sat back, propped against the headboard with him. "So, you're attracted to me, admittedly love me, and you think it's weird to want to be with me?"

Dean looked over at her, admiring her pert breasts for a moment before fixing his gaze on her face again. "I've never, and I mean never, felt this way. It's...it feels weird. Not bad weird but...and it's been way stronger since..." He trailed off.

Pressing her lips together, she took his hand in hers. "I can't speak to the rest of how you're feeling about me, but have you considered it's a reaction to grief?"

"I can't keep my hands off you because my dad died?"

She shrugged. "That was the creepiest way to say it but yeah."

"Why would you think that?"

"Losing someone does weird things to people. Some people go numb, some people can't focus on anything else, some people don't care about eating, bathing, all that. And it comes and goes in waves. Some people just have upticks in their libido and sometimes you go kinda hyper-sexual behaviors because it helps kill the numbness you feel the rest of the time."

His eyebrow quirked. He wasn't anticipating an almost clinical explanation. "Huh. That...you sound a little like a textbook there."

Mae lifted his hand, pressing a soft kiss to his knuckles. "You wouldn't be the first of us to ask if maybe the amount of sex their having is...out of sync with how they should be feeling. I'm an old hand at fucking away the nothing."

He didn't want to think about all of that, particularly with the implication that after her husband died, she was hooking up with a bunch of random guys. He wasn't jealous nor did he judge her for it, he just didn't want the thought of her with other men in his head. "Is that what's happening with us?"

She shrugged again. "Not for me at any rate. You're the one who has to figure out if that's what's happening for you or not. I would guess since you had feelings for me well before this, no. But maybe it's always been sex for you, in which case, you're kind of bad at that because statistically, you probably spend more time talking with me than sleeping with me. I'm not opposed to having too much sex with you.."

"I don't think we've reached 'too much' levels of sex yet. I've had other opportunities to hook up with someone else, if I wanted, and it just left me kind of...cold, you know? I'm hyper focused on you though. I can't stop thinking about you, thinking about being with you."

Mae attempted to suppress the pang of jealousy, particularly since it sounded like he hadn't acted on anything. It wasn't worth the fight trying to decide if they were exclusive when they had taken time apart. "I mean, I'm the only other person here you're not related to so..."

"I didn't mean here. You know, I forgot how snarky you get. I can't tell if it's endearing or annoying."

She leaned over to kiss his shoulder. "I can be both. You know, there's another possibility."

"What's that?"

"Given the right set of circumstances, you might actually like having sex with someone you have feelings for, who has feeling for you. You might not be hyper focused so much as...you know, in love with me."

He looked down at their hands but let himself smile. "Yeah, I am. Is that just what it's like?"

"Love?" She laughed a little, "I guess, I don't know. I've only ever love one other person who wasn't you. It's always been different with you though. This is how we are. Do you really need to dissect why?"

"I guess not." With his free hand, he brushed against her jaw and tilted her mouth to meet his. He kissed her, soulful and tender, fed with longing. Mae broke the kiss first.

"Can I ask you something "

"If it's about round three, I need a little more time before I'm ready to rock."

Mae smirked but rolled her eyes. "I think I can control my womanly urges for a few minutes."

Dean chuckled. "I can still make the wait worth your while."

"But seriously, tell me why you think you have to kill me and Sam? I don't know how I feel about sleeping with my would be murderer."

Frowning, he sighed a bit. He supposed he owed her an explanation. "Did dad tell you...anything like that after the accident?"

"No. He just kept asking if I loved you and said that was all that mattered for him right then. Which was really out of character for him when...when we still had a job left to do. But maybe seeing you as bad as you were...I don't know."

"That is kinda weird. What did you tell him?"

"What do you think?"

His shoulders raised non-noncommittally. "Maybe you said you were just after my body."

"Yeah, that's exactly what I would have said." She said sarcastically. "C'mon, you know I told him yes. Because I do love you. I'm not sold on the idea that it fixes our demon problems but...it was important to him. What did he tell you?"

"You heard some of what he said. The rest..." Dean shook his head, "he said if I couldn't save Sam, I'd have to kill him."

Her mouth pulled into a thoughtful frown. "But why?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. Could you do it?"

Her left eyebrow quirked up, but she held the rest of her face in a carefully neutral expression. She had told the kitsune she would take Sam out to stop it. She was fairly certain if things had continued to escalate and there was no other way, she would. It wouldn't have been easy, but she would have. Did the same hold true in this hypothetical situation John had left Dean twisted up about? She couldn't rightly answer. "Are you asking me if I would or if I'm capable of it?"

"I don't even know, Mae." He raked his free hand through his hair, "Sam is the most uncomfortable with all of this. He's the one who wants to ask questions first and maybe never shoot. I don't have that. But, I don't know that I have that same instinct when it comes to my brother. Or you. If you think about who out of all three of us would need to be put down..."

"C'mon Dean, none of us deserve that."

He shrugged. "I've done some pretty shady shit."

"Nothing shadier than any hunter. You don't deserve to die, and you shouldn't have to... do whatever terrible thing your dad told you to do."

"What if this is how it all starts?"

"What?"

"Sam. You. If you're not, you know, human or Sam is...evil? Does it start with the both of you sympathizing with things that I want to kill, that I know we should kill. You're making friends with this weird fox, he's buddy-buddy with vampires. How soon is it demons. Dad didn't say anything about you but...if you're not human..."

"Dean. That was shitty for your dad to lay on you." With a little sigh, she took the hand she held and pulled it up, ducking under his arm and letting it drape over her shoulder. She cuddled into him, placing her hand on his chest. "Sam's, no offense, he's softer than you or I. He's more...sensitive. That's not really a thing monsters are known for. I don't know what your dad put together but you know, he could be wrong."

He couldn't argue the point. He let his focus shift for them moment on the smooth skin under his fingertips. "But what if he's right? I mean, the man knew how to put all these random crazy things together and figure out things no one else had. So... what did he know that he didn't tell me. Instead he just tells me I might have to kill my brother."

"Do you want him to be right?"

"Fuck, of course not! I just-" His fingers flexed and tightened on her arm, not hard or painfully but firmly. "I wanna know what we're up against. It seems like every time something possibly good could happen, we're hit with something worse."

"I don't think that's why shit is happening but yeah, there's something going on. Something big. That doesn't mean the end game here is you having to kill Sam. If, and it's a big if, he turns or whatever, we'll figure something out. You're not alone here."

He wanted to believe her, wanted to be able to take comfort in her words, the addicting warmth of her fingers gliding over his chest, the comfort of how easy it was being with her. He knew they'd try but since they had no idea what they were up against, how could they? "You know, Sam was real pals-y with that demon chick Meg."

Mae scoffed, "Only until he figured out what she was. And you totally would a banged her if she showed even a little interest in you."

"See, that was the first hint that she wasn't human."

"Because all human women want to sleep with you." Mae said with a titter in her voice.

"Yeah, I mean maybe not lesbians, which explains why she was interested in Sammy. I guess we know you're a human woman for sure."

Her laugh was full throated this time. "Okay, so according to you, humanity is defined by a hatred of smooth jazz and wanting to fuck you."

"Yeah. If you're a straight woman."

She rubbed his chest softly. "I see you have a foolproof lady monster detection system, Deany."

He was going to say something more, but his stomach had different ideas, loudly grumbling its complaint. Amused, Mae lifted her head from his shoulder. Dean frowned and looked at his watch. "Huh. I guess I didn't eat lunch with you guys."

Mae smiled, "I guess not. Come on, let's get you fed." After a playful pat to his stomach.

Night was falling rapidly now, and the room was almost dark now. Dean's eyes followed her silhouette as she rolled out of bed before getting up himself. He watched as she grabbed his shirt off the floor, putting it on and buttoning it up. He let his eyes wander up her legs appreciatively as she pulled on her panties. Dean was certain she wouldn't be receptive to the sense of possessiveness he felt seeing her in his shirt. Of all the women he'd been with, none of them had been his. But Mae was. She always had been. He had always been hers. He shook his head before starting to dress in the rest of his discarded clothing.